PULSE FAMILY 



LEGUMINOS^E PULSE FAMILY 



Baptisia tinctoria, (L.) R. Br. 



Yellow Wild Indigo, Rattlebush, 



Yellow Broom, Indigo-broom, 



June- August Clover-broom, Indigo-weed, 



Horsefly-weed, Horse-fleaweed. 

 Shoofly, 



Baptisia: from Greek to dye, in allusion to the economical 



use of some species which yield a poor indigo. 

 Tinctoria: Latin for coloured. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons. 



THE PLANT: erect and bushy, two feet to four feet high, 

 much branched; the stem slender, hairless, and with a 

 slight bloom. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; three-divided, the leaflets re- 

 sembling those of the clover, hairless on both surfaces, 

 obtuse at the apex, at the base, wedge-shaped. 



THE FLOWERS: in terminal racemes, on very short stems. 



THE FRUIT: a pod, ovoid or nearly globose, black and 

 persistent. 



A low, bushy plant with numerous dark blue-green 

 leaves and bright yellow pea-shaped flowers, or, in the 

 early fall, with blackened leaves and small, blackened 

 seed-pods. 



So compact and symmetrical are these low "bushes" 

 that they are numbered among the well-known plants of 

 the Commons. They have long been familiar to the Nan- 

 tucketers, for the "old people" used to make from this 

 plant a wash to bathe sores and to pour into open wounds. 



A drug is still made from it, of value in the treatment 

 of low fevers. 



10 145 



